Dredger's Alarming Dungeon
by LiaLao
Summary: Dredger's Alarming Dungeon, from the collection: Tales of Inside the Genie's Lamp. Gafa Baile has only ever known of the Siosk, the scary underworld that lives beneath the peoples feet. In this tale, seven would be heroes attempt not to die as they follow the tasks of Major Tom.
1. Chapter 1

_This story is based off the incredible Dungeons and Dragons campaign written by FallenPrimer aka Conner McCartan. I am merely just retelling the story for the players to look back on._

 **-Lia Lao (Best Warlock Ever) aka Amanda Savig**

Chapter 1: A Party?

Major Tom sat at the bar, waiting for his new adventure party to show up. _They definitely are a rag tag team_ , he thought to himself, _to be made up of criminals and society's outcasts_. He contemplated if this party would actually last. The only people who seemed like they would last were the elf named Niavara, the bounty hunter Raefew and their own military trained dragonborn Onrades. _Those three should be okay, but the other half would prove to be difficult keeping alive down in the Siosk. I mean, a tiefling for a cleric? Who had ever heard of such a thing? The sorceress may have some potential. Her family history should prove her to be powerful if she can harness her powers. The warlock may go evil on us at any moment. Maybe we'll get lucky and she'll die quickly down there._ His thoughts trailed off as he heard footsteps approach from behind.

"Are you Major Tom?" a quiet voice trying to sound authorative asked.

"Yes, I indeed am," he replied as he turned to face a female tiefling. "Freedom I presume?"

"Yeah, that's me."

"Well, you're the first to arrive. Take a seat and we'll wait for your other party members to arrive."

Freedom gave a slight nod and took a seat a couple spots down from the major, ordering a mug of ale while wrapping her tail around the bar stool leg. She takes a few sips every now and then, her heart racing as she thinks of how dangerous this could become and wondering how Arch-Priest Raneban would take this. He seemed to be okay when she told him of the opportunity, but maybe he was nervous for her? After all, he had raised her after she was abandoned on the steps of the cleric tower in her infancy.

The two stayed quiet as the minutes passed, waiting for the other party members. While sitting there, Freedom began to make glances at the major. She was absolutely infatuated with what sat on the top of his head: a bright feathered hat that was rather large and noticeable from a great distance. _I wonder where I can get one of those…_ Freedom thought to herself.

Soon, the two were greeted by another voice. "Hello! I'm looking for Major Tom?"

Major Tom turns and sees a blue cloaked sorceress behind him, "That's me. Come to join the adventuring party?"

"Yes, I am!" She says in a bubbly, excited voice! "I'm Rylle! Nice to meet you!"

"Yes, yes, I know who you are. I know everyone who will be in this party. You're just the second person to accept my invitation. Take a seat and let's see if anyone else will show up."

Despite Major Tom's brashness, Rylle doesn't let it bother her and takes a seat next to Freedom. "Hi!" She exclaims, "Isn't this exciting?"

Freedom, being slightly taller, looks down at her, "Yeah, I guess so."

The third party member makes herself slink along the wall, blending into the shadows with her dark clothing. _So this is the adventuring party? Psh, a group of weaklings more like it._ Making sure to keep herself unnoticed, she stays in the corner and watches as someone walks in.

Giant footsteps fill the tavern, and the quiet grumbling between patron's silences as a heavily armored dragonborn walks towards the bar. He looks and sees the two strangers sitting next to the major, hoping that the rest of the party will be there. The last thing he needs is to be with barely half a party when he could be working at his post and being able to go home to his wife and two children.

"Ah, Onrades! Happy you finally showed up! These are two of the other three that shall be joining you."

"Where are the others at?" He asked in a deep booming voice, despite him asking at a "quiet" level for him. "They should have been here by now."

"Calm down, it appears a couple are running late. Take a seat and relax."

Onrades sits at a bar stool, the bar keeper looking especially nervous when the seat creeks and groans under the dragonborns' mighty weight. Ordering a mug of mead, Onrades contemplates if teaming up with strange people like this is a smart idea.

The door opens for the next party member, only she stays quiet. Much like the person hiding in the tavern, she chooses to stay hidden, not only to scope out her future party members, but to also stay hidden from the public eye, not wanting to be scrutinized for her false accusations. She brushes a strand of greyish hair behind her ear as someone enters the tavern.

Dressed in dark clothes, Lia scouts the room, immediately taking note to someone at the piano just a short distance away. _I wonder if I could get away with looking in his pockets._ Deciding that now wasn't the time and there were too many people, she slinks forward.

"You Major Tom?" She asked the man with the feathered hat.

"Lia Lao. You finally made it. My condolences again to your late mother. It must have come as a shock."

Swallowing, she responds. "Yes, it was. Bandits are quiet the pests."

With a nod, Major Tom looks at the party seated at the bar, "Well it appears that you all made it to me, except for two, but they will be dealt with soon. Now, your first task starts tomorrow. I will meet you all at the Siosks doors tomorrow morning. Get some sleep, you all are going to need it."

"Why can't you just tell us now?" Lia asks, crossing her arms.

"I believe you are to do as I say. Now go." Major Tom tells her sternly. Lia backs off and makes her way out of the tavern, in a mood to hunt bandits to vent her frustrations.

"See you guys tomorrow!" Rylle says cheerfully as she too exits the tavern behind Lia.

"Major, I will be seeing you in the morning then." Onrades says with a nod of respect and leaves with Freedom following him out.

Major Tom watches as they all leave before going over to the right side of the room to where a cloaked figure sits in the shadows. "Niavara, I wouldn't expect anything less of you to hide in the shadows."

She looks up at Major Tom, not really seeming to care what he has to say.

"Shall we be seeing you in the morning, or are you going to slink off to your black market again?"

"Oh, you'll be seeing me. But don't think I am going to be enjoying any of this or care about any one of those fools." With that, she broods out of the tavern.

Major Tom sighs as he makes his way over to the final party member across the room. "Raefew, you did make it! And here I was almost hoping you wouldn't show up. We would be able to hunt you down and kill you then. Serves you right after killing your adopted father."

"I didn't kill him!" She shouts, throwing her hood back to look at him more clearly.

He chuckles, "So you say, but your story is too farfetched to really believe."

Raefew huffs and leans in her seat. "So they're what I'm going to be working with? Most of them are going to die down there, you do realize that right?"

"Which is why you are important to us. You were a bounty hunter until you became a criminal of Gafa Baile. You know what to do in a bind and how to stay alive, besides your elf and dragonborn, the others will die. I need you to be down there and work for me."

Raefew sits quietly, taking in what her life had become in such a short amount of time. "I heard what you told the nincompoops, I'll be at the Siosk in the morning." With that, Raefew throws her hood up and walks out into the night.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2: Into the Siosk

The gaping opening to the Siosk is not welcoming by any means. Major Tom was stationed outside the entrance, propping himself against his giant sword, his frilly, feathered hat expressed its' colors in the sun. Eventually, Raefew showed up, her stance timid. The Major nearly snorted. _As if she had a choice, it's either this or execution._ He thought to himself.

Following immediately after were the warlock, the cleric and the paladin. Apparently the paladin hadn't like the speed the other two were going and had picked them up by their shoulders and carried them to the entrance. The major was unsurprised to see the sorcerer following behind the paladin, slightly hidden from the dragon borns hulking stature.

Major Tom sighed. "Niavara, are you just going to hide in that corner all day, or are you actually going to do something with your life?"

With a slight chuckle, she came out of the shadows, surprising a couple of the members by her sudden appearance. "You really do hate fun don't you?"

He huffed. "Well, now that you're all finally here, I can debrief you and then you may begin your adventure. There appears to be something blocking the sewage drains underground. The village had sent someone down there three days ago to resolve the issue, but he has yet to return." The party had a grim look on their faces. "Your task is to find out what is causing the issue, fix it, then return. Now, if you will excuse me, I shall be returning to my office now."

"Hold on a second!" Major Tom turned to look at Freedom. "Where'd you get your hat at?"

"Is this really the time to be asking me this? Hurry up, it should only take you a day or two to finish the task." And with that, he sauntered off, his feathers sashing as he went.

"Now that that's over, let's go." Raefew clapped her hands together, eager to go.

"Oh pardon me!"

Raefew groaned, "Now what?"

"I hate to bother you kiddos, but could you help me? I appear to be having issues posting this up on the job board."

Lia steps forward. "Here, I'll help you." She says with a gentle smile. "What exactly is the job you need help with?"

"Oh, I lost my purple purse. I just absolutely love that thing! It disappeared and my husband and I have searched all over our house and it's gone." The woman wasn't intimidating by any means. She had a sweet heart shaped face that had wrinkles on her forehead and the sides of her face. Her pale skin had a healthy glow to it as she stood there with her flyer.

"Ah, I see. Well here I'll just tac it up right here-"

Before Lia could put one tac in it, Raefew ripped it out of her hands. Lia scoffed, "Excuse you."

"We may find this down in the Siosk." Raefew shrugged.

"Have you lost your mind?" Lia guffawed.

"Pack rats. You never know..." the older woman trailed off.

The elderly woman looked at Raefew. "Oh thank you! I do hope you find it soon! My address is on the flyer if you happen upon it. When you find it, stop by and I will give you a reward."

"Of course not a problem at all Miss-" she quickly looks at the flyer, "Rigsby."

"Thank you again!" And with that, she hobbled off.

"Before another elderly woman or flamboyant man postpones us again, I say we go now." Onrades huffs. The rest of the group agrees and they head into the Siosk. As the party enters the large doors, they stare in wonder at the glowing glass elevator that stands before them. The edges a nice golden trim, the glass clear and clean.

"Let's go on an adventure then!" Rylle says and makes her way into the glass elevator, followed by Raefew and Niavara. Freedom and Lia look between the two of them and the giant lizard man behind them. "I'll go first, then you and then him." Freedom says, looking at Lia.

"Works for me." She says nonchalantly.

Freedom makes her way in, her tale staying close to her person, not wanting anyone to accidently step on it. Lia timidly steps in, looking at Onrades nervously.

Onrades, not really seeming to care about the worried five already packed into the elevator, struts forwards and places one foot in. Time seemed to slow for the party members as he set his second foot on the elevator floor. As soon as he did, the elevator seemed to creak at the sudden weight of the large dragonborn.

"Oh good job fatty!" Lia glared.

"Hey! That was offensive!" He scowled back.

"Okay," Raefew intervened, "you stop it." Raefew points her finger at Lias' face as she slinks closer to the front of the elevator. As she closes the door, she goes, "Okay, what floor are the sewers?"

"I would say at the very bottom." Onrades grumbles.

"Okay, here goes nothing." Raefew then places a hand on the lever stationed next to the door.

"Wait a second." Niavara says. "How do we know it will stop at the floor we need?"

Raefew looks at Niavara, before simply stating "We don't." and moves the lever all the way over.

The elevator shakes before dropping.

"SHIT!" Freedom screams as the party members all attempt to brace themselves.

"It's broken!" Rylle cries out. "We're going to die before the adventure even begins!"

Around the elevator was darkness, flashes of color, light and dirt would show as the glass box propelled itself downwards past all other floors of the Siosk. After an eternity of falling, the elevator stops.

The party takes a breath to collect their baring's. "I think we made it guys." Raefew pants.

"We better have." Niavara gasps. "That was bullshit. Who the hell made this thing?! Sadists?!"

"It's been here all long as Gafa Baile has been. There's no telling." Onrades informs.

The large group makes their way out of the glowing elevator quickly, all slightly shaken by the sudden fall. The elves, half elves and tiefling look and see they are in a cave like structure. Onrades, on the other hand, was having difficulties of his own.

"You know, I didn't realize it would be this dark down here. Can someone who can see tell me what's going on?"

"Yeah," Raefew replies, looking in his direction. "We're in a cave like structure. I'm thinking we go forward and find a path to the sewers."

"Alright. Someone's going to have to lead me or light a torch then."

"I'll lead you!" Rylle cheers and grabs a hold of his arm.

"I will help too." Freedom says and grabs his other arm.

"Let's just go already." Niavara grumbles under her breath. With that, the group starts to tread forward.

The party didn't have to walk far, just a few minutes before they came upon a wood and rope bridge. Rylle and Freedom tell Onrades what lies before them.

"Should we cross it then?" Lia asks. "Because that pit seems off."

"Yeah, something isn't right. Do you hear that?" Raefew motions for everyone to stay quiet.

After a few moments, the group hears it, a quiet rumbling from the pit.

"What is that?" Niavara inquires.

"I think I know." Onrades states.

The party pauses, them all thinking the same thing. "Well, let's look then." Niavara pushes.

Through the darkness, only two people, Niavara and Raefew, are able to see what lies at the bottom.

"You've got to be kidding me." Raefew whispers.

At the very bottom of the pit, a sleeping white dragon laid beneath the bridge.

 **Author's Note: Sorry this took a while to upload. Work has been calling me a lot lately. Hopefully soon I will be able to start uploading regularly.**


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